Deposit Bonus
Free Spins
Supplier
Reels
Rows
Paylines
Released
RTP
Max Win
Volatility
Theme
Multipliers
Bonus Buy
Progressive
The crowd is eagerly awaiting the start of the match. You’re a bit nervous, but you’re keeping your composure. Your heart starts to beat faster as you step onto the court. You know your goal, you love this game.
The action takes place in a sports arena. The stands are packed and the court is ready for a thrilling match. However, the atmosphere doesn’t match the hype of the basketball match, and the soundtrack adds little to build up the anticipation. The only other sound you’ll hear is the stopwatch counting down.
Moving on to the paytable, where there are 12 regular symbols. At the bottom, you’ll find playing cards, followed by energy drinks, basketball jerseys, sneakers, trophies and championship rings. The remaining icons featured in this pokie are Wilds, Scatters, a basketball player, and the stopwatch. You’ll also find a master stopwatch, but its role requires a detailed explanation.
Take the Shot slot uses a grid consisting of 5 reels and 4 rows. At the same time, it has 75 lines paying from left to right. Almost all symbols award wins for 3 or more across a payline, with the championship ring being the only exception as it pays even for 2 of a kind.
The prizes on offer range from 0.30x to 3x the bet for winning combinations consisting of 5 symbols.
Volatility is medium, making Take the Shot suitable for all types of Kiwi players. The betting options support this claim, allowing pokie lovers to wager between $0.20 and $260 per spin. The default RTP is 95.14%, which is below the current average. Using the Bonus Buy feature drops it to 94.36%, which is quite low. The maximum payout is worth 359.7x the stake.
At first sight, Take the Shot doesn’t offer anything new, but there’s more than meets the eye.
As soon as the game starts, you’ll notice a stopwatch in the corner of the screen. It’s not there to make the scenery look nice; no, it has a much more important task. Every time you press the Spin button, this master stopwatch will start counting down from 10 to 0.
You have 10 spins to land as many basketball player symbols as possible. Whenever this symbol appears, it will turn into a stopwatch. They remain in position until the master stopwatch reaches 0. At that moment, stopwatches convert into Wilds, and since Wilds can replace all regular symbols, there’s the chance to claim big wins.
Ultimately, the master stopwatch resets to 10, while all Wilds are cleared from the reels. The mechanism I described then once again repeats.
Scatter symbols land only on the middle 3 reels, awarding 15 free spins whenever the round is triggered. It’s possible you’ll have to be very patient to activate the feature from the base game. Once Free Spins start, you’ll get 5, 7, or 10 Wilds scattered across the grid. With each spin, these Wilds will change positions.
As I said, triggering Free Spins may take some time. If you want to jump into action immediately, you can buy your way to this round. In addition to purchasing 15 freebies, you can choose how many Wilds you’ll get.
The prices range from 54x your stake for 5 Wilds to 190x the bet for the 10 starting Wild symbols.
This option is available after a standard win in the base game. By choosing it, you can gamble half or all your winnings. Once the coin stops spinning, a correct guess will double your stake. On the other hand, the wrong one will leave you empty-handed.
Let’s start from the beginning. Take the Shot looks nice and has a premium feel when you first start the game. More animations could have added to the visual experience, while the choice of the soundtrack was quite poor. I think the tune doesn’t fit the theme and quickly becomes boring.
In theory, medium volatility makes the pokie suitable for all types of players. In reality, the top payout of 359.7x the bet will hardly appeal to any high roller. The Stopwatch round provides a unique twist to the gameplay, and I believe the game should have been centred around it. Free Spins are a nice addition, but they feature nothing new. They are hard to trigger, although you can avoid this by using the Bonus Buy feature.
The RTP of 95.14% significantly drops when you use Bonus Buy, although some versions of the game can have a payout percentage as low as 91.06%.
Overall, it seems that Betsoft Gaming had a good idea, but the poor execution left us with an average release.
Pros
Cons